{"id":"coding-agent","slug":"coding-agent","name":"Coding agent / code generation","shortName":"Coding agent / code generation","problemStatement":"Agent must edit repos, call tools, and produce correct code with high reliability.","whenNotTopPick":"Compliance blocks Anthropic; or you need cheapest high-volume codegen (DeepSeek/open hosts) with human review.","categoryIds":["cat-inference-apis"],"depotPickProviderId":"anthropic","depotPickRationale":"Capability and reliability dominate. PricePerf secondary for interactive coding; primary for bulk codegen.","runnersUpIds":["openai","deepseek","mistral","zai","minimax","dashscope"],"weights":{"capabilityFit":0.25,"pricePerformance":0.18,"latencyReliability":0.15,"developerDx":0.15,"privacyPosture":0.1,"lockInRisk":0.07,"maturity":0.1},"methodologyNotes":"Capability and reliability dominate. PricePerf secondary for interactive coding; primary for bulk codegen.","tags":["coding"],"depth":{"whenNotToUse":{"text":"Compliance blocks Anthropic; or you need cheapest high-volume codegen (DeepSeek/open hosts) with human review.","source":"editorial `whenNotTopPick` (data/jtbds.json)"},"whenNotToUseReason":null,"runnerUp":{"providerId":"openai","name":"OpenAI","overallForJob":8.22,"pickOverallForJob":8.42,"beatsPickOn":["latencyReliability","developerDx","maturity"],"source":"first resolvable entry of the job's editorially ranked `runnersUpIds`; scores are stored job-weighted scores"},"runnerUpReason":null,"lockIn":{"pickLockInRisk":6.5,"runnerUpLockInRisk":7.2,"scale":"0–10 stored curated estimate; higher = more lock-in (worse)","pickExitSignals":[],"runnerUpExitSignals":[],"pickNotes":[],"selfHostFallback":[{"id":"swe-bench","name":"SWE-bench","license":"MIT","sourceUrl":"https://github.com/SWE-bench/SWE-bench/blob/main/LICENSE"},{"id":"qwen2-5-coder-7b-instruct","name":"Qwen2.5-Coder-7B-Instruct","license":"Apache-2.0","sourceUrl":"https://huggingface.co/Qwen/Qwen2.5-Coder-7B-Instruct/raw/main/LICENSE"},{"id":"terminal-bench","name":"Terminal-Bench","license":"Apache-2.0","sourceUrl":"https://raw.githubusercontent.com/laude-institute/terminal-bench/main/LICENSE"}],"migration":"The pick has lower stored lock-in risk than runner-up OpenAI (6.5 vs 7.2). Self-host fallback listed for this job: SWE-bench, Qwen2.5-Coder-7B-Instruct, Terminal-Bench.","migrationReason":null,"derivedFrom":"stored lockInRisk scores, provider tags (oss, self-host, openai-compat, open-models), free rows that list this job, and verbatim provider notes. No migration guide was invented."}},"freshness":{"pick":{"score":{"asOf":"2026-10-19","ageDays":8,"stale":false,"staleAfterDays":30,"reason":null},"lastReviewed":{"asOf":"2026-10-19","ageDays":8,"stale":false,"staleAfterDays":30,"reason":null},"sourceCheck":{"checkedAt":"2026-10-27","sourceUrls":2,"sourcesReachable":2,"pricingRows":14,"pricingRowsReconfirmed":14,"note":"A source re-check confirms the page is reachable and, for pricing rows, that the stored amount and SKU name appear on it. It does not re-derive or change the score.","reason":null}}},"depotPick":{"id":"anthropic","slug":"anthropic","name":"Anthropic","tagline":"Depot default for serious coding and production agents. Prefer Sonnet for cost/quality; reserve Opus for hard…","overall":8.42},"runnersUp":[{"id":"openai","slug":"openai","name":"OpenAI","tagline":"Default when you want maximum capability and ecosystem glue. Multi-home critical paths behind OpenAI-compat…","overall":8.22},{"id":"deepseek","slug":"deepseek","name":"DeepSeek","tagline":"Unbeatable $/quality for many workloads — if your compliance team allows it. Otherwise host similar open…","overall":7.95},{"id":"mistral","slug":"mistral","name":"Mistral AI","tagline":"Default EU-friendly LLM vendor. Pair with Mistral-hosted or self-host open weights when sovereignty matters.","overall":8.05},{"id":"zai","slug":"zai","name":"Z.AI (Zhipu GLM)","tagline":"International GLM via z.ai — catalog zai, not a second Zhipu mainland-only SKU. Strong cheap/coding runner…","overall":7.79},{"id":"minimax","slug":"minimax","name":"MiniMax","tagline":"Primary indie-usable Chinese multimodal API alongside Moonshot. Prefer Anthropic/OpenAI for coding agents…","overall":7.83},{"id":"dashscope","slug":"dashscope","name":"Alibaba Cloud Model Studio (DashScope)","tagline":"Catalog dashscope for Alibaba Model Studio / DashScope international Qwen. Complements Moonshot/MiniMax/Z.AI…","overall":7.86}]}